UAE seizes 1m fake printer cartridges

In the last four years in collaboration with local
authorities HP has conducted more than 1,000 investigations, resulting in over
800 enforcement actions in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, confiscating
nearly 9m counterfeit products and components.

The raid happened in April this year, but was only disclosed
this week during a press event in Qatar.

“The Middle East is a hot spot for counterfeit. It’s an area
in which counterfeit products get assembled and then shipped to Europe or
elsewhere,” said Tina Rose, anti-counterfeit marketing programme manager, EMEA,
at HP

Since the beginning of this year 2,000 counterfeit HP
products have been seized in Qatar.

“Counterfeiting poses a huge challenge to brands and
business in Qatar. Counterfeiters harm manufacturers and customers by
consistently undermining business standards and practices. Counterfeiting is
bad news for everyone, as it dishonestly generates billions of dollars and
threatens the reputations of global brands” said Rose.

The International Chamber of Commerce has indicated that the
global economic and social impacts of counterfeiting and piracy will reach $1.7
trillion by 2015 and put 2.5m legitimate jobs at risk each year.